It was 11:54 p.m. when Eli Manning came jogging through the tunnel, flipped his wristbands up to the wailing fans overhead, and disappeared into the locker room to celebrate Giants 23, Vikings 7.
He had waited 295 days for this feeling, all of them had, and it probably felt longer than that. And it didn't matter much to him or to them that they had held the country hostage through one of The Worst Monday Night Games Ever Played, on the opposite end of the spectrum from The Greatest Game Ever Played, before all of them (except Tom Coughlin) were born.
But when you are a Manning, and when you are a two-time Super Bowl MVP, and when you are identified as part of the problem after all those years of being part of the solution, the wait is interminable.
Finally, mercifully, it ends on a chilly Monday night at MetLife Stadium, and when it does, you sure do remember how sweet it is to high five your long-suffering teammates and brothers and feel the way Giants are supposed to feel after a football game.
Finally, there are no questions about your interceptions, because you have managed, barely, to throw not a one, not a 16th.
Finally, with Mariano Rivera in the house, wearing your jersey, you remember how you spell r-e-l-i-e-f, you are no longer riddled with gnawing self-doubt. You no longer have to wonder how many days would remain on the Super Bowl countdown before you won a damn game.
"It's good to be smiling, and have a little excitement in the locker room afterward … those things are fun," Manning said. "If you play and don't win after a while, you kind of forget that feeling, that winning feeling."
It was hardly a performance that will strike fear in the hearts of the big boys of this league, but against these Vikings, it didn't have to be. It just had to end in 1-6 and not 0-7.
It was one small step for Manning (23-for-39, 200 yards, 1 touchdown), no Giant leap for Giantkind, but that was good enough in a season that has gotten late early.
It ended in 1-6 mostly because Big Blue found a turkey it could devour in Josh Freeman (20-for-53, 190 yards, 1 interception) and stuffed Adrian Peterson (13 rushes, 28 yards). Coughlin's special teams were hit or miss, mostly miss, and Manning's once-feared long-range nuclear attack was more 3 yards and a cloud of busts, more Tiny Tim tiptoeing through the tulips than The Boss barging into a room whenever he pleased.
Manning & Co. hardly resembled a machine. Too often, it remained an offense paralyzed by timidity, mostly groping in the dark, searching for something, anything, to hang its hat on, trying to take what they give you but too infrequently taking it.
"They were going to try make us keep the ball underneath," Manning said.
Manning saw the field well, but 10 points were set up for him by special teams.
"We made enough plays to win the game," Manning said.
Even Victor Cruz, the Giants' best player, dropped a perfect rainbow touchdown pass from Manning early in the fourth quarter. Hakeem Nicks dropped two passes.
"Too many third-and-longs," Manning said.
You wonder if the Sandman fell asleep watching two bad and boring teams.
"It was an honor that he was wearing my jersey, " Manning said.
Ten of Manning's first 22 completions went to backs, including a 16-yard safety valve to gallant Peyton Hillis on third-and-12 and a 9-yarder to Hillis, who refused to stop charging until he got the next first down on the field goal drive that made it Giants 20, Vikings 7.
After scrambling up the middle for six yards on third-and-5, Manning settled for a field goal at the end of a 9:36 opening drive after a pass for a diving Nicks trickled off his fingertips. He made it 10-7 when Rueben Randle leaped over Chris Cook and came down with a 24-yard touchdown catch.
Under siege, Manning was fortunate that Marcus Sherels dropped what would have been a 45-yard pick-six by the Giants sideline. Sherels then proceeded to fumble Steve Weatherford's punt at the Minny 3. Hillis capped the two-play, 3-yard drive with a 1-yard touchdown plunge up the middle that reminded no one of Alan (The Horse) Ameche scoring against the Giants in overtime 55 years ago at Yankee Stadium.
This wasn't The Second Greatest Game Ever Played. For Manning and the 1-6 Giants, it only felt as if it might have been.
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